Single number presentation for dual-mode phones

ABSTRACT

Providing a single number presentation to the party called by a dual-mode phone. The operation of the cellular side of a dual-mode phone is altered such that when the user attempts to place an outgoing call using the cellular phone, the call is redirected to a preprogrammed incoming phone number associated with the enterprise. When the enterprise PBX answers this call, the dual-mode phone transmits the desired number to the enterprise PBX. The enterprise PBX then places the call to the desired number, and in the process transmits the caller-id information assigned to the dual-mode phone.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation based on U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/955,104 filed Dec. 12, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No______.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the operation of dual-mode phones, andmore particularly, to presenting a single number to the party called bya dual-mode phone.

Dual-mode phones support connections via Wi-Fi and cellular networks. Inan enterprise environment, when the user of a dual-mode phone places acall through the enterprise Wi-Fi connection, the called party receivescaller-id information from the enterprise. When the user of thedual-mode phone is away from the enterprise Wi-Fi network and places acall through the cellular side of the dual-mode phone, the called partyreceives completely different caller-id information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may be best understood by referring to the followingdescription and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrateembodiments of the invention in which:

FIG. 1 shows a dual-mode phone in a network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention relate to dual-mode phones, and toproviding a single number presentation to the party called by adual-mode phone. The operation of the cellular side of a dual-mode phoneis altered such that when the user attempts to place an outgoing callusing the cellular phone, the call is redirected to a preprogrammedincoming phone number associated with the enterprise. When theenterprise PBX answers this call, the dual-mode phone transmits thedesired number to the enterprise PBX. The enterprise PBX then places thecall to the desired number, and in the process transmits the enterprisecaller-id information assigned to the dual-mode phone.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the invention including a dual-mode phone.Enterprise SIP PBX communicates 210 with public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) 200. SIP PBX 100 also communicates with fixed mobilitycontroller (FMC) 120. Mobility controller 120 bridges the worlds of SIPPBX 100 and Wi-Fi network controller 130. SIP PBX 100 and fixed mobilitycontroller 120 communicate for example using protocols established byRFC 3261, RFC 2833, and RFC 3631, incorporated herein by reference.Voice streams are typically encoded using the RTP protocols defined byRFC 3550, incorporated herein by reference.

As understood in the art, such a hardware platform as shown in FIG. 1for hosting mobility controller 120 includes a central processing unit(CPU) 122 connected to memory hierarchy 124, and to one or moreinterfaces 126. In one embodiment, CPU 122 is a MIPS-style CPU such asthose from Raza Microelectronics or Cavium Networks, although CPUs fromother companies such as Intel, AMD, Freescale, or the like may also beused. Memory hierarchy 124 includes read-only memory for systeminitialization, high-speed read-write memory such as DRAM, and bulkmemory such as a hard disk or compact flash storage for files.Interfaces 126 include wired and wireless Ethernet interfaces as areknown to the art. Controller 120 typically operates under the control ofan operating system such as Linux, hosting software processes whichprovide device functionality. Additional hardware may be provided toprovide for high-speed packet handling, crypto processing, and the like.While FIG. 1 shows mobility controller 120 and Wi-Fi-network controller130 as separate entities, it should be noted that they may also besoftware processes running on a shared hardware platform. As an example,a single hardware platform based on a multi-core MIPS processor such asthose from Raza Microelectronics or Cavium Networks could host thefunctions of Wi-Fi network controller 130 along with mobility controller120 and additional functions such as intrusion detection and/orfirewalls.

Dual-mode phone 300 has first radio subsystem 310 for Wi-Ficommunications such as to Wi-Fi network controller 130. Dual-mode phone300 also has second radio subsystem 320 for communicating with cellularnetwork 230 and through public switched telephone network 200. As iscommon with many such devices, dual-mode phone 300 is a digital deviceoperating under control of CPU 330 through programs and data stored inmemory hierarchy 340. Other aspects of dual-mode phone 300 such asspeakers, microphones, power and display, keyboards and the like areunderstood by those in the art, and are not shown.

In operation, when dual-mode phone 300 wishes to initiate a call throughWi-Fi connection 310, mobility controller 120 through Wi-Fi networkcontroller 130 signals PBX 100 to place the call through public switchedtelephone network 200. In so doing, PBX 100 provides the enterprisecaller-id information associated with dual-mode phone 300 to PSTN 200and the called party.

When dual-mode phone 300 is out of range of the enterprise Wi-Fi networkand places a call using the cellular 320 side, through cellular network230, the caller-id information received by the called party will be thatprovided by the cellular network. According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, dual-mode phone 300 is modified such that when theuser attempts to place a call using cellular network 230, thedestination number is stored temporarily in memory hierarchy 340. Acellular call is then placed to a predetermined number assigned toenterprise PBX 210. When this call is received at PBX 100, it alsoreceives caller-id information identifying and authenticating dual-modephone 300. If the caller-id information indicates that the incoming callis from an authorized user, such as by comparing the caller-idinformation to a list of allowed numbers, the incoming call is routed tomobility controller 120, which has previously been registered with PBX100 as a SIP back to back user agent (B2BUA) as described in RFC 3261,incorporated herein by reference.

When the call from dual-mode phone 300 is passed to mobility controller120, the controller receives the incoming caller-id information (thecellular number of the dual-mode phone) identifying dual-mode phone 300,and then receives the destination (called party) number information astransmitted by dual-mode phone 300. This destination number can betransmitted by dual-mode phone 300, for example, using DTMF tones, andreceived by mobility controller 120 using packetized DTMF tones asdescribed in RFC 2833 incorporated herein by reference. Mobilitycontroller 120 then uses this number to initiate a PSTN call through SIPPBX 100, retrieving and using the enterprise caller-id informationassociated with dual-mode phone 300. When that outgoing call isestablished, mobility controller 120 connects the incoming cellular callfrom dual-mode phone 300 to the outgoing call just established, thusproviding the destination number with the enterprise called-idinformation.

It may be desirable to place certain cellular calls directly, such as toemergency services (911), information services, and the like. Suchnumbers may be recognized by the software operating dual-mode phone 300,as with 911 or other emergency services numbers, or a prefix may beprovided to direct the software in dual-mode phone 300 that the numbershould be called directly, and not rerouted.

In additional embodiments of the invention, various techniques may beused to frame or encode the destination number to provide for robusttransmission and/or error detection. In one example, the digit sequencemay be framed by transmitting “#<number of digits>*<digit sequence>#”from dual-mode phone 300 to mobile controller 120. Other techniques suchas the use of check digits or repeating digits may also be used.Dual-mode phone 300 may also repeat the transmission of the digitsequence, which may include framing or check digits as discussed.Authentication codes may also be added or included in the checksequence. The digit sequence may be repeated a specified number oftimes, or for a predetermined period of time.

While the invention has been described in terms of various embodiments,the invention should not be limited to only those embodiments described,but can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spiritand scope of the appended claims. The description is this to be regardedas illustrative rather than limiting.

1. A method of operating a dual-mode phone comprising: detecting anattempt to place a call through a cellular connection to a targetnumber; storing the target number; initiating a cellular connection to anumber that is different from the target number and assigned to aprivate branch exchange that is part of a wireless network; and onceconnected, transmitting the stored target number to a controller that isadapted to (i) receive the target number, (ii) identify the callingdual-mode phone, (iii) retrieve caller-id information associated withthe dual-mode phone, (iv) call the target number and supply thecaller-id information associated with the dual-mode phone, and (v)establish an audio connection between the dual-mode phone and the deviceassociated with the target number.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein thetransmitting of the stored target number includes encoding digitscomprising the stored target number.
 3. The method of claim 2 whereinthe encoding of the digits comprising the stored target number comprisesadding framing.
 4. The method of claim 2 wherein the encoding of thedigits comprising the stored target number comprises adding checkdigits.
 5. The method of claim 2 wherein the encoding of the digitscomprising the stored target number comprises repeating digits.
 6. Themethod of claim 2 wherein the encoding of the digits comprising thestored target number comprises adding authentication.
 7. The method ofclaim 1 wherein prior to initiating of the cellular connection, themethod further comprises determining if the target number is a specificnumber and initiating a cellular connection using the target number ifthe target number is identical to the specific number.
 8. The method ofclaim 7 wherein the specific number is one of a telephone number foremergency services or a telephone number for information services. 9.The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting of the stored targetnumber is (i) repeated a preset number of times or (ii) repeated for apreset period of time.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the controlleridentifying the calling dual-mode phone comprises: retrieving thecaller-id information associated with the incoming call from thedual-mode phone, and comparing the caller-id information against a listof authorized numbers.
 11. Adapted for communications with a privatebranch exchange (PBX) deployed within an enterprise network, a mobilitycontroller comprising: means for receiving a caller-id information for adual-mode phone initiating a telephone call to the PBX; means forreceiving a telephone number from the dual-mode phone, the telephonenumber being a targeted destination for a prior telephone call thatinitiated the telephone call to the PBX; means for initiating a publicswitched telephone network (PSTN) call using the telephone number whileproviding the caller-id information for the dual-mode phone; and meansfor connecting the PSTN call with the prior telephone call from thedual-mode phone.
 12. A method of operating a dual-mode phone thatincludes a first radio subsystem for wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi)communications and a second radio subsystem for cellular communications,comprising: initiating a call from the first radio subsystem to awireless network controller and a mobility controller when the dual-modephone is in range to receive communications from the wireless networkcontroller so that the mobility controller processes information withinthe call and provides a network caller identification associated withthe dual-mode phone to a called party; detecting an attempt to place thecall through a cellular connection to a target number; storing thetarget number; initiating a cellular connection to a number assigned toa device being part of the wireless network including the wirelessnetwork controller and the mobility controller in lieu of the targetnumber, the number being different than the target number; and onceconnected, transmitting the stored target number to the mobilitycontroller that is adapted to (i) receive the target number and calleridentification information associated with the dual-mode phone, (ii)identify a calling party as the dual-mode phone, and thereafter, (iii)establish a call to the target number over the wireless network whilesupplying the network caller identification associated with thedual-mode phone to the called party.
 13. The method of claim 12 whereinthe detecting of the attempt to place the call through the cellularconnection comprises: determining if the target number is a specificnumber; and initiating a cellular connection using the target number ifthe target number is identical to the specific number.
 14. The method ofclaim 13 wherein the specific number is a telephone number for emergencyservices.
 15. The method of claim 13 wherein the specific number is atelephone number for information services.
 16. A dual-mode phonecomprising: a first radio subsystem adapted to initiate a telephone callto a called party over a wireless network; a second radio subsystemadapted to initiate a call over a cellular network, where in response toan attempt to place the call using the cellular network, the dual-modephone (i) stores a phone number being a destination for the call, (ii)initiates a call to a predetermined number assigned to a device formingpart of the wireless network in lieu of initiating the call over thecellular network, (iii) and providing the stored phone number and acaller-id information of the dual-mode phone so that a telephone call tothe destination including a network caller-id information thatcorresponds to the caller-id information is initiated after the callingparty is authenticated using the caller-id information.
 17. The methodof claim 16 wherein the caller-id information for the dual-mode phonebeing a cellular telephone number for the dual-mode phone.
 18. Themethod of claim 16 wherein the network caller-id information isdifferent than the caller-id information.
 19. The method of claim 16wherein the second radio subsystem is further adapted to detect anattempt to place a call to a phone number assigned for emergencyservices over the cellular network, and initiating a cellular connectionusing the phone number assigned for emergency services in lieu ofrouting the call to the wireless network.
 20. The method of claim 16wherein the second radio subsystem is further adapted to detect anattempt to place a call to a phone number assigned for informationservices over the cellular network, and initiating a cellular connectionusing the phone number assigned for information services in lieu ofrouting the call to the wireless network.